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Recently, Western State Colorado University’s club rugby programs have exemplified this. In 2017, the men’s team went 6-2 in the Division II collegiate Rocky Mountain Rugby League, losing twice to No. 1-seeded Montana State University.

The Freeride World Tour accepts only three new male skiers from North America each year.

“There were about 500 skiers competing for those three spots, so qualifying was very difficult," Moller said. "I was very fortunate to have two second-place finishes and a fourth-place finish, which got me the third spot."

Just five qualifying competitions are held in North America, and the tour takes competitors' best three results.

Dawid, the oldest, and Aneta, the youngest, are separated by four years. It’s arguably a perfect range; spread enough in age that the three can live and experience independently, but close enough to draft off of each other’s accomplishments. But how did they end up all together at Western, a small college in the Rocky Mountains thousands of miles away from their home?

Child’s play

The Konieczeks are a serious trifecta of runners; a tally board is needed to count the number of national podiums they have stood atop. This talent must run in the family.

The team finished a with a 2-25 record, 1-17 within the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC).

“Staying positive in the midst of a drought is definitely a challenge,” said freshman defensive specialist Bonnie Brode, “but all the girls on our team are really good at building one another up, pushing each other to be better and keeping everyone focused.”

While the Mountaineers have struggled, they have also strengthened on another and the team’s chemistry.

For the 6,000-plus residents of Gunnison and the many tourists and truckers alike who travel to or through the small Colorado city along U.S. Highway 50, Tenderfoot Mountain is best known for the big “W” marked on it facing town. Many Gunnisonians know it only as W Mountain.

The Environment & Sustainability (ENVS) program as a whole has seen terrific growth over the past few years. SES now includes a growing array of diverse academic programs, community events and a center for internal and external environmental problem-solving.

This year is the first year that Western is affiliated with IACURH and the National Association of College and University Residence Halls (NACURH). This gives students on campus the opportunity to attend national and regional conferences.

Taylor, who has an art forensics laboratory in New York, was invited to speak about science and art—specifically issues of art forgery, which are analyzed in his lab. Taylor was invited to be a keynote speaker at the All-Russia Science Festival.

Organized by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the science festival is held in many regions throughout Russia with thousands of scientifically oriented events and approximately 2 million attendees.

On the recruiting process: “Western brought me to campus for the first official visit. They were definitely interested, and I was interested in them as well. It showed me they actually wanted me to be on their team. On the first official visit, I’m the running back that they’re bringing in. That was special for me. That went a long way for me. No other school had me for their first official visit.”

Take, for instance, his first game in the backfield against West Texas A&M in the 2013 season opener. Ekeler started as a true freshman for Western State Colorado University before the home crowd at the Mountaineer Bowl in Gunnison. It was an inauspicious start.​

“My first college game ever, as a freshman,” Ekeler said, “I had 10 carries for 10 yards.”

The Gunnison Arts Center held a charity auction and presented a short play written by Calvin Curry and adapted by Michael Callihan titled "Murder From the Past," a wry murder-mystery thriller set in the 1920s. The Coldharbour and I Bar ranches also set up booths near the arts center to promote upcoming events to pedestrians and Art Walk attendees.

APIC recently hosted its first Bistro Hour of the year. The clubs members all shared their excitement of making Bistro Hour a monthly event. The group is also interested in hosting other events, such as smoothie days and sushi nights.

The first Bistro Hour was Korean barbeque, with fried rice and veggies. A bowl with meat was $6 and a veggie bowl was $4. If students brought their own bowl they got $1 off.

While Harris is a Tucson, Ariz. native, she says she doesn’t much mind the snow; she actively skis and snowboards when time allows. She does, however miss the regular, more temperate seasons of her home state.

“[Tucson] was a good place to grow up—as a parent it would be an easy place to live," Harris said. "I liked growing up there—it doesn’t feel like home now that I’ve lived up here for two years … I step into [my parent’s] world. It’s not my world anymore.”

Press Release

This three-night series billed as “Wildlife 101: Management in the Gunnison Basin”–free and open to the public–is slated for three consecutive Thursday evenings: Feb. 15, Feb. 22 and March 1. Each talk will be held on Western’s campus at the ICELab off Escalante Drive from 6:30-8 p.m. The series is designed to explore the science behind wildlife management, including topics such as: the role hunting plays in conservation, population ecology, habitat management, and the challenges and opportunities in the Gunnison Basin.

Through a dual enrollment agreement, students will be able to enroll in SEI's classes offered online, in-person and as hands-on labs to receive college credit from Western. Students can also enroll in SEI's Solar Professionals Certificate Program, which is recognized by the Colorado Department of Higher Education and comprised of a combination of SEI class offerings.

This includes but is not limited to operations from marketing, student recruitment, faculty hires, programming, curriculum, institutional culture and services.

Salsbury also asked the DEII Committee to work alongside each of the strategic planning committees to ensure the groups integrate attainable, actionable, relevant, specific and temporally appropriate goals in their respective sections of Western’s next Strategic Plan.

The DEII Committee is also charged with developing and tracking metrics and benchmarks to qualify progress.

The exhibit runs from January 18 to February 22, 2018, featuring the work of Carrie Ann Baade, Marcus Goldson, Anders Johnson, Ryan Austin Lee and Don Eugene Seastrum. The exhibit was curated by Jeffrey Taylor.

Narrative paintings encompass those works that express concepts, ideas, philosophies, stories or any number of content-texts. The medium employs the power of visual images to provoke thoughts, arouse feelings and stimulate the intellect. A narrative work can call into question commonly accepted beliefs, relate histories or challenge authority.

Professor Duane Vandenbusche, Ph.D., will kick off the evening with a slide show on the history of the mining towns. Emeritus Professor Bruce Bartleson, Ph.D., will join him to discuss the geology of the region.

In the second half of the evening, CLCD Productions’ Cathy Carpenter Dea will join the group. Cathy will discuss her film team’s amazing experiences shooting footage of Vandenbusche and Bartleson during the San Juan Mining Tour for an upcoming documentary entitled “Breaking the Mold, Colorado Contemporaries.”

Senior Canyon Mueller and junior Jorge Zarate Aguirre represented Western at the 42-school competition. Other competitors hailed from institutions including Baylor University, Utah State University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Central Florida and University of Texas Dallas.

At the competition, Mueller and Zarate Aguirre participated in two types of events:

Students increase their understanding of the issues facing public land managers through hands-on experiences that allow for the application of skills developed in the classroom. The land-management agencies benefit from the completion of necessary project work, and the agency will be served long-term as diverse students pursue diverse careers. The benefits to the university include support of curriculum and out-of-class learning opportunities in partnership with the agency experts.

Bingham also received a sub-award from the University of Colorado Boulder on a collaborative award from the National Science Foundation for a digitization project using herbarium data to document plant niches in the high peaks and high plains of the southern Rocky Mountains. Western is one of several institutions in the partnership.

In related news, Sam Van De Velde, a graduate of Western’s High Altitude Exercise Physiology graduate program, had his thesis project published in the August 2017 issue of ACE’s Certified magazine. Van De Velde’s project concerning the performance benefits of training with a sauna suit was funded by ACE.

The Western State Colorado University Chamber Orchestra and String Ensemble, under the direction of Kenneth Todd, is to perform an evening of chamber string music from a variety of musical styles and periods for string orchestra this Thursday.

The concert will feature the works of J.S. Bach, Antonio Vivaldi and Edvard Grieg as well as transcriptions and adaptations of compositions by Gruselle, Joseph Brackett and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Soloists Natasha Pratt (violin), Jannett McBride (violin) and Jo Raetzel (cello) will be featured on Vivaldi’s L’Estro Armonico, Op. 3, No. 11.

Professor Anderson has more than 140 books to his credit, 56 of which have appeared on national and international bestseller lists, including many of the novels in the “Star Wars” series. There are more than 23 million copies of his works in print, in thirty languages. He and his wife also own and operate WordFire Press in Colorado Springs.

Levin has shot, edited, directed and produced documentaries across the globe, in North America, the Middle East, Europe and Asia. These works have been shown at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, The San Francisco Art Museum, several U.S. Embassies, The Society for Applied Anthropology, The American Anthropology Association, and The Society for Cinema and Media Studies, as well as on PBS and other broadcast outlets and in theaters.

She is a member of the U.S. Department of State Speakers Bureau and is a former president of the University Film and Video Association.

Western fielded 13 athletes to compete across five disciplines: cross county, short track, downhill, dual slalom and the team relay. Western accumulated 399 points over the course of the three-day event, beating the 2016 defending DII champion, Warren Wilson College, and 2015 DII Champion, King University. Western has been runner up in three of the past four years.

First, five students gain invaluable hands-on experience in their chosen field of study by helping to treat GVH patients between the physical therapy clinic, cardiac rehabilitation program and Senior Care Center. For this work, they are paid a monthly stipend to offset the cost of tuition.

Secondly, the students conduct research and collect data to complement classwork, including theses.

Tickets for the performance will be available at the door: $20 general admission, $10 students.

VOCES8 takes pride in inspiring people through music and sharing the joy of singing. Touring extensively throughout Europe, North America and Asia, the British group performs repertoire from Renaissance polyphony to contemporary commissions and arrangements. Versatility and a celebration of diverse musical expression are central to the ensemble’s performance ethos.

The agreement widens the options for treatment and rehabilitation, ensuring that injured student-athletes are afforded the best possible care by a collective of three local orthopedic-care providers working in concert.

“This will be an inclusive care system, leveraging the incredible resources we are fortunate enough to have in Gunnison and Crested Butte,” Alpine Orthopaedics Director Bonnie McDonald said.

Western pitched the idea this year as part of its ongoing efforts to forge balanced partnerships that benefit both the college—particularly its students—and the community.

The free three-day conference features community tours and workshops, poetry readings, a dance performance, a keynote address and a panel titled “Wild Justice.” Plus, in a new addition this year, children ages 5-15 are invited to attend a Headwaters for Kids camp at the Coldharbour Ranch, an environmental education center.

Featured News, Inside Western

The desolation that rocks Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Maria isn’t a secret. This isn’t new news, per se, but it is forgotten news.

The island is still mostly without power, clean water and food; FEMA is overworked and understaffed. The coverage comes and goes, but according to the two Western students who recently returned from a relief mission, the common thread is simple.

Inside Western

At the seventh annual conference, Marissa Krupa of Helena, Mont., presented “Perceived Emotional Support in the Teacher-Student Relationship,” the capstone project for the recent graduate of Western’s online M.A. in Education program. The conference was first recommended to Krupa by Western Lecturer Kim Silbaugh, Ph.D., as a way to receive feedback on the project for future publishing

“It was a crowning moment for me to bring all my skills from business and education together in this presentation,” Krupa said. “Everyone was wowed. Winning the award is an incredible honor!”

Celluloid Cinema is a screening series put on by Mountaineer Media, a Film Studies co-curricular. Students who assist with Celluloid Cinema are all members of Mountaineer Media, and these students all have a lot of love for old film. Last year was Celluloid Cinema's first; the new series was an idea that came together based off old 16 mm films in Taylor Hall.

“The beer garden was an initiative that a lot of universities have been starting to do in the last few years. [We want fans] to have a great game day atmosphere but more of a controlled atmosphere as well,” said Miles Van Hee, Western’s athletic director.

Inside Western, Press Release

The conference, running Nov. 8-12, will highlight faculty and student research; provide development training for administrators; and focus on issues of technology, equity and access.

Bennett has organized a panel, “Asking Enduring Questions in Honors.” In this presentation, she and other recipients of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will discuss various models of NEH-funded honors courses—and how these courses can increase students’ understanding of the humanities, regardless of majors.